Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Li Yao thought quickly and realized that although Long Yangjun’s words were rather unconventional and whimsical, they did seem self-consistent and explained the situation logically.

Considering for a long time, Li Yao said again, “Even if your speculation is correct and the tenebrum energy is not ‘evil’, it is nonetheless very ‘dangerous’.”

“Exactly. Tenebrum energy is a kind of energy that is almost too powerful to be controlled. It is indeed very dangerous and not to be touched by ordinary people and low-level trainers.”

Long Yangjun said, “However, for the experts in the Nascent Soul Stage or the Divinity Transformation Stage, exploring the mysteries of the tenebrum energy is the only way to make them stronger.

“It is already the limit to advance into the Divinity Transformation Stage or the Divinity Branching Stage with spiritual energy alone. Only the tenebrum energy can help the insignificant human beings to touch the ultimate mysteries of the universe and inherit the precious ‘legacies’ left by countless intelligent lives in history!

“Of course, that being said, it is perfectly normal that you have concerns. Not just you, even the Pangu Clan in the past did not agree with training using the tenebrum energy!”

Attracted, Li Yao couldn’t help but ask, “Have you remembered more things about the primeval war now?”

“More or less. The mottled memory pieces are getting clearer and clearer inside my soul.”

Long Yangjun sighed and said, “The ultimate war between the Pangu Clan and the Nuwa Clan, in terms of ideology, was a war of ‘order’ against ‘freedom’. But apart from the metaphysical theories, the real trigger of the war was whether or not to develop the tenebrum energy on a large scale.

“In the last years of the Pangu Civilization, the technologies and the training techniques were all highly advanced. They also found the relics of countless ancestral civilizations from billions of years ago. All the requirements to develop and apply the tenebrum energy on a large scale were met.

“However, the energy form that was a hundred times more powerful and dangerous than the spiritual energy naturally raised everybody’s wariness.

“The thirteen main civilizations of the Pangu civilizations’ alliance only joined each other because they were exhausted and almost mutually destroyed in the countless universal wars against one another. The wars in the past taught them a good lesson about the dread of desires, ambitions, hatred, and chaos. Therefore, the Pangu Civilization’s alliance worshipped absolute order and believed that everybody must conceal or even erase their feelings to maintain the peace and harmony of the universe.

“While the tenebrum energy was an energy form that was a hundred times more advanced and powerful, it entailed the residues of the feelings, will, and desires of countless prehistoric civilizations. If they were taken in recklessly, it was possible that the ambitions and hatred that the Pangu civilizations had just suppressed would be stirred up again.

“Therefore, the leaders of the Pangu civilizations reached a consensus to seal the tenebrum energy together and abolish all the technologies that can develop the tenebrum energy. Also, the tenebrum energy was defined as ‘Chaos’, ‘extraterrestrial devils’, and things like that, to inform every individual in the alliance of civilizations how evil and dreadful the energy was, and how it could destroy the entire alliance of civilizations when it was released and activated!”

Regardless of the credibility of Long Yangjun’s words, Li Yao felt greatly enlightened.

Long Yangjun went on, “The first twelve civilizations that joined the alliance had all been through the destructive wars against one another. They were fully aware of the importance of order, and they carried out the ban dutifully in the next thousands of years.

“However, the ‘Nuwa civilization’, which was youngest and joined the alliance last, was not a participant of the goriest wars in the past. They loved freedom by their nature, not knowing that freedom would lead to chaos and chaos would result in destruction. The Nuwa civilization believed that the spiritual energy in the suppressed state was not enough to help the alliance of civilizations to break out of the known universe, just like coal and oil alone are not enough for a planetary civilization to march out of the stellar system.

“In order to explore the vast universe and even conquer the entire sea of stars so that the civilization can climb higher peaks, the tenebrum energy must be activated and made use of!

“Otherwise, the seemingly glorious and brilliant alliance of civilizations was nothing but a frog at the bottom of a well. It would be forever stranded in the known universe and perish without a sound in the end!

“Disregarding the ban of the Pangu civilizations’ alliance, the Nuwa Clan researched on the tenebrum energy in secret. Naturally, the studies couldn’t have been flawless at the beginning. When the magnificent power was released, some tragedies happened too, and the Pangu civilizations’ alliance learned of the matter.

“To maintain the peace and order of the universe, the other twelve civilizations of the alliance, including the Pangu Clan, the Kuafu Clan, the Gonggong Clan, the Zhurong Clan, etc., decided to wipe out the Nuwa civilization that was already polluted by the tenebrum energy so that the chaos and destruction could be terminated while they were still in the cradle!

“That was the trigger of the primeval war. You know most of what happened next. Fighting against twelve powerful civilizations that were far stronger than themselves at the same time, the Nuwa civilization was naturally on a losing streak at the beginning and almost entirely obliterated.

“But at the last moment, the Nuwa civilization freed the power contained in the spiritual energy, upgrading the spiritual energy into the tenebrum energy. With such a power, they transformed the ‘full-terrain generic miniature biochemical tools’, or human beings, which were most widely used in the Pangu civilizations’ alliance, into ultimate weapons that had their own will and emotions, with a high independence and inestimable potentials. Eventually, the Nuwa Clan and their opponents suffered equally heavy losses, and human beings finally became the owners of the three thousand Sectors after Pangu and Nuwa passed away!

“Therefore, human beings are in fact very strong, and they have the natural-born gifts to make use of the tenebrum energy. As long as I tell you a few tricks, you will soon be able to play with it skillfully!”

Long Yangjun told the whole story without any stop and grimaced at Li Yao, as if she had said nothing but an unimportant rumor instead of a shocking legend.

Li Yao felt the urge to scratch his head. Pondering for a long time, he asked, “You are willing to teach me how to use the tenebrum energy? Why?”

Long Yangjun said, “If I say that it’s because I was moved by your statement that you regarded me as a friend in the metro tunnel of White Stone Municipality the other day, and that I would like to treat you as a real friend, would you believe me?”

Li Yao replied, “Not that I don’t believe you, but it does sound a little bit… nauseating.”

“Ha, I feel that it is a little bit nauseating too. Then, let me put it in a different way.”

Long Yangjun swam inside the deep ocean as agilely as a mermaid while she said with a smile, “Dongfang Wang is dying, but I am still in need of abundant training resources, and I need somebody to help me maintain my Colossus. So, I have to find another thick thigh to cling to, don’t I? Li Linghai is too dangerous, and I don’t really want to deal with her. After weighing all the candidates, I think that Monster Li is relatively dependable. That’s why I’ve decided to offer you a gift. Does that make sense?

“If you think that it is not good enough, I have one more reason. Most of the details of the primeval war as well as the interpretation of the tenebrum energy that I described just now are merely my speculations that are not supported by any evidence. I think that I will have to explore deeper fields to find the whole truth of the primeval war or even the mysteries of the primordial age before the appearance of the Pangu Clan and the Nuwa Clan after I gather enough intelligence and files in the Imperium of True Human Beings! The journey will be too long and lonely if I were to finish it on my own, and I can totally use some company. Monster Li, are you willing to come with me?”

“Mysteries of the primordial age? That’s rather distant!”

After a long daze, Li Yao said, “I’ll have to check with my wife first.”

Long Yangjun: “…”

Li Yao: “Or maybe we can explore the mysteries of the primordial age together after my wife retires from the office. You know that she is very good at fighting. If she picks up the tenebrum energy, her speed of training will certainly be ten times higher than mine!”

Long Yangjun: “…”

Li Yao: “If you think that it’s going to be awkward if there are two of us and only one of you, we can bring more people, like Jin Xinyue, Yan Liren, Wu Mayan, and Fiend Blade Peng Hai. The more, the merrier!”

Long Yangjun stared at Li Yao for a long time.

Even in the dark and profound bottom of the ocean, her eyes still appeared extremely sharp through the crystal suit and the seawater.

Long Yangjun sniffed and swam to the depths of the undersea chasm, waving the metal fins next to her legs. “Enough of the nonsense. If you want to meet Dongfang Wang while he is still alive, just come with me!”

Li Yao scratched his chin for a long time and still decided to go down with Long Yangjun.

It couldn’t be helped. He and Long Yangjun were caught in the dilemma where neither of them could defeat the other person and both of them were capable of dying together with each other. It seemed that they had to work together now.

Retreating the Gold Vulture and absorbing the mental devil back into the body again, Li Yao followed Long Yangjun and descended quickly.

Looking at Long Yangjun’s agile body that looked like a mermaid, Li Yao couldn’t help but send a telepathic thought over. “Well, there is a personal question that I’ve been meaning to ask you. It’s not a big deal, but I’m very curious about one thing. Are you… a man or a woman?”

Long Yangjun swam silently ahead of him. Half a minute later, when Li Yao thought that she had turned a deaf ear to his question, she replied casually, “It has occurred to me that you are not only narrow-minded but also childish. Is it important whether I am a man or a woman?”

“Not really.”

Li Yao was more or less embarrassed. “Forget it. Just forget it if you don’t want to answer it. It’s just that since we are such close friends and comrades, we are likely to be faced with certain extremely dangerous battles in the future. If your body is blown into a mess and you are unconscious, I will need to know how to treat you.”

Long Yangjun was silent for a while longer. Then she sniffed and said, “The so-called ‘man’ and ‘woman’ is just a classification of human beings in terms of reproduction. Not every one of the thirteen civilizations of the Pangu’s alliance had genders, and those which did have genders were not necessarily divided as males and females. They could have three or even more sexes.

“As for the Nuwa Clan, their naturally-endowed gift is ‘creation’. Frankly speaking, the genes of the Nuwa Clan boasted very powerful integration abilities, which allowed them to breed with most of the intelligent lives with barely any reproductive isolation. That was why the Pangu civilizations’ alliance entrusted the mission of creating human beings to the Nuwa Clan.

“While my soul was corrupted by the Pangu Clan, my body came from the Nuwa Clan. Therefore, I do not have a specific gender. Or rather, I can turn into any gender I want. How does it sound? Is your curiosity satisfied?”